By: LUCAS ADAMS
Staff Writer
In multiple states, Medical licensing officials are scrambling to stop nurses with fraudulent academic credentials. This was after three Florida schools were accused of selling thousands of bogus diplomas. In recent weeks, New York, Delaware, Texas, and many more states are taking action against these bogus diplomas. States are acting in the wake of Operation Nightingale, a federal investigation into what officials say was a wire fraud scheme with several now-closed Florida Nursing schools.
It wasn’t just Florida schools that were giving out these bogus diplomas. School in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Delaware. Investigators have identified the schools as Palm Beach School of Nursing, Seine College, and Sacred Heart International Institution. Federal officials shared this information with states to better help them hunt down these nurses with phony credentials.
Colleges are also taking action by refusing license applications and rescinding people’s licenses.
There are also those that were caught in the crossfire of these investigations like the nurses that genuinely earned their diplomas. The State Board’s actions are taking place as hospitals are trying to deal with chronic staffing challenges. After all this, there are hopes that these nurses with bogus diplomas are taking out the medical field because the people deserve to know that when they’re at their most vulnerable and most susceptible, they’re in good hands.
